2. Changing places: Marketing health takes more than persuasion. Robert J
Changing places: Marketing health takes more than persuasion. Robert J. Gould, Ph.D. APHA November 5, 2007

3. A long career provides many good stories and learnings…

4. Some broader learnings…
Marketing is always about competition. Sacrifice something.
Everything is branding.
You can NEVER get enough insight about your audience.
You never step in the same social marketing river twice. (Thank you Mr. Heraclitus.)

5. And one mother of all learnings…
Social marketing success is measured in lives, not livelihoods. Play to win.

6. And one war story that captures this learning best.

7. The birth of ‘truth’
1997 $11.3 billion settlement between the tobacco industry and the state of Florida.
Governor Lawton Chiles dedicates a portion of the settlement to counter-marketing with sole focus of reducing youth smoking.

8. Background In 1998, teen smoking was up 73% over the past ten years.
Established “don’t smoke” campaigns focused on health risks were not effective.
Big tobacco was spending almost $1million A DAY marketing tobacco.
80% of teens smoked one of the three most powerful brands in the world – Camel, Marlboro, Newport.

9. The battle for teens
Most tobacco experimentation occurs around 7th or 8th grade.
By age of 14, teens exposed to $20 million in tobacco image marketing.
80% of adult smokers start before 18.
Highest risk teens are “high sensation seekers.”
Tobacco satisfies teen needs from brands: to rebel, take risks, feel respected, fit in, be independent.
In word, tobacco helps teens “assert control.”

10. Tobacco’s competitive positioning and strategy
Tobacco had managed to position their opposition – social marketers – as preachy and controlling, while positioning themselves as empowering and rebellious.
Forced out of mass media, Big Tobacco marketing was “bottom up,” investing in events, gear and pervasive images of Joe Camel and Marlboro Man.

11. The ‘truth’ strategy Do more than just advertising.
Create a brand that:
Replaced tobacco by satisfying the same needs for rebellion, respect, fitting in and control;
Was as omnipresent in their lives as tobacco brands;
Made not smoking as cool as smoking;
Directed natural rebellion at a manipulative tobacco industry;
Was a dialogue among teens, not a message from adults.

12. ‘truth’ execution
‘truth’ – a brand tolerant of all things but lies and manipulation (yes, even smoking.)
Develop brand at grassroots level with events, activism, gear and buzz.
Take that brand to broader audience through mass media that showcased real teens and a teen’s “voice.”
Coordinated grassroots, PR and mass media themes

13. Their brand is lies. Our brand is ‘truth’.

14. Develop brand at grassroots level with events, activism, gear & buzz.

16. Take that brand to broader audience through mass media that showcased real teens and a teen’s “voice.”

18. Coordinate grassroots, PR and mass media thematically.

20. Results
Percent of students who smoked one or more cigarettes in the past 30 days

21. ‘truth’ taught us that social marketing plays to win when it targets both individuals and the world they live in.
Branding delivers the message AND lets me know that others are “buying it.” (i.e., social norms)
Marketing engages and stimulates dialogue (i.e., social networking).
It’s NOT either/or. Advocacy for “environmental” change (for ‘truth’ this included attacking smoking in movies and tobacco advertising in magazines) ALSO influences individual beliefs and attitudes.

22. And this even goes beyond what ‘truth’ could do
And this even goes beyond what ‘truth’ could do. All of it has an influence.
Advocacy for FDA regulatory authority.
Advocacy to reduce exposure to second hand smoke.
Advocacy for increasing taxes on tobacco.
Litigation communications support for those Big Tobacco attacks via the courts.

23. Thanks!